In most surgical operations, suturing an incision in tissue typically consumes a large portion of the total operating time. Stapling devices for surgical suturing have been developed to reduce this suturing time. Examples of surgical stapling devices are provided by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,604,561, 3,646,801, 4,162,678, 4,316,468, 4,317,451, and 4,485,816.
Conventional suturing staplers suffer from several problems. For one thing, many of the staplers are relatively large, which tends to limit their usefulness for delicate surgical procedures. Also, known suturing staplers typically bend the legs of the staple around a fixed rectangular staple anvil during insertion of the staple into the tissue. This simultaneous bending and insertion often causes the tissue adjacent the incision to tear, thereby inducing potentially severe traumatic effects. In addition, the fixed anvil is typically positioned to rest on the tissue surface. Hence, after stapler actuation is completed and the staple is fully implanted, the fixed anvil typically remains sandwiched in tight compression between the staple and the tissue surface, so that removal of the anvil tends to abrade or otherwise injure the tissue surface, thereby inducing further trauma. These anvil-related characteristics make such known staplers undesirable for delicate surgery.